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Friday, November 4, 2011

Bringing it back from seed

11/4

Jane drops by for a very serious discussion re boilers and donors and strategies and what’s possible. Hope appears and we broaden the discussion to our interaction and collaboration. But any way you cut it, we’re at crunch time. We pull this off or its over. Negotiation is not pressure, but it is business....

Ji Young and Miranda are in. Looking for a way to help her even in a time of low funds. Seeing if we could work out a short term agreement for her to help us out here...

Out on the steps, the man I will never hear from again, left some serious remembrance. Thankfully a layer of cardboard makes it easier to deal wirh. All the rest, pillows and blankets and all, to the trash. No choice now.

Tonight the Riverside Symphony is performing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto #1 (performed by Victoria Schwartzman). One of the cellists arrives. Asks me if I work here. I say yes. It’s sad, she says. How so? I ask. Everything’s going to seed, she says. Actually,I say, we’re bringing it back from seed. Step by step, inch by inch. I point out the water leaks we’ve fixed, the newly painted bathrooms. She still seems a bit skeptical.

Concert draws a good crowd. Not like ..Winged Victory...but still a good crowd. A more typical Upperwest Side crowd. Older. A bit more staid. I’m sad that Ephraim didn’t think we had a good space for an after concert party. We could’ve done that. The concert is once again proof of what you can find in New York right in your own neighborhood. I enjoyed the darkness of Sibelius’ Pelleas and Melisande and the sparkling of Mendelssohn’s piano concerto.

Among the crowd is Shirley from Peace Action and other older activists, other parents who shared PS 87 with us. A couple from Hoboken wants to know more so I take their names. And a couople from the Belnord wants to help with next Thursday’s boiler fundraiser there.

Sometimes, i feel it’s not just going to seed, but that all that’s left is seeds and stems. Tonight I feel lonely as I lock up.